ABOUT FIRES.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 455, 13 March 1909, Page 7

ABOUT FIRES.

CAPTAIN HUCO'S REFERENCE TO WELLINGTON. COMMENTS AND STATISTICS. (BY TELEUKAPU—ritES? ASSOCIATION.) 1 Auokland, March 12. i During tho Firo Brigades' Conference the • other day, Captain Hugo (Government Piro ' Inspector) laid considerable stress en what • ho termed tho extraordinary prevalence of i fires in Now Zealand, following with a strong i indictment of certain methods of insurance. ■ Mr. Hugo took Wellington as an instance, J nnd stated that during tho twelve months to , March last thcro had been 139 firos in tho . capital city, witli a population of 60,0(10, *■ whilst the total number of calls had been 257. j This, ho said, wm out of all proportion when compared with what would bo tho avcrago in , a European town of the same size, viz., 23. In the courao of conversation to-day with a gentleman prominently connected with firo insurance circles, a press representative obtained a number of statistics which show that Wellington has had no very disproportionate sharo of fires in the course of the last year. The report of tho superintendent of tho Auckland Firo Brigade sets forth the total number of fires nnd alarms for tho year ending Juno 30, ]0()S, at ISG, of whicli 72 wero actual firtsr 35 false- alarms, 16 chimney fires, and 23 gross fires, whilst five others , woro outside tho city. In Duncdin tho annual fire returns to June 30, 1908, show 86 calls for the t-.velve months. No serious fires have occurred during tho year. "There is no doubt," said this gentleman, "that , a few yo-irs ago thcro were a larce number "f fires in Auckland, but I could not say r ' 'rr theso properties were over-in-sured ,:ot. I am perfectly Satisfied that within ..:e last few years, at all events, those cases form an extremely small proportion of tho whole. Thcro ate, of course, suspicious coses at.times, as in every other business. Fire insurance is a very difficult affair, and tho question of Values a'very hard ono to ns.■ertain. You might have your furnitUro insured for, say, £20, and at the end of five years or so a fire might occur. The furnituro would, of course, have deteriorated, ' and people call tho fire a case of oyor-iiisur-ance, ajid-assume in their own minds that you started the blaze. Again, valuations of property five yoars ago. compared with those of to-day differ very greatly owing to tho changes in the prices of labour and. material." " And do . you think that over-insurance, affects the number of fireo?" "I certainly don't" "think" that* over-insur-ance is the cause of tho number of fires which one would be led to believe from Mr. Hugo's remarks. It may bo a minor factor, but it would not account for tho gross excess which wo appear to be having risrht throughout Australasia. As far as Wellington is concerned, I don't think that tho conditions, or moral hazard, are in any way different from those prevailing in any other centre I don't know that Wellington has ever boon exceptional in the number" of fires. Since -July 1, ]POB, we hnvfl had 104 alnrni3 in Auckland, but by far the most of those are rubbish, gorse, or chimney fires."